The Lustig
by uselessbroodygay
Summary: So maybe Laura's local club's new bartender intrigued her more than she'd like to admit.
1. Chapter 1

The club was dark, loud, the odd strobe lights flashing on and off in the distance every so often. It was the place you went if you were looking for a one-night stand, really.

So why, exactly, had Laura allowed LaFontaine to drag her here? _'It'll be fun!'_ they said. _'It's about time you got yourself a woman!'_ they said. Maybe it was. Laura was 21 and she hadn't had a girlfriend since she left high school. It took a little bit of convincing before she finally agreed. After all, what harm could it do?

And so here she was, shuffling awkwardly between drunken couples making out against the wall of the narrow corridor leading into the main part of the club. Of course, Danny had to tag along, claiming it was to make sure Laura didn't get herself into any trouble when really it was just so she could catch Betty once she was off the clock. Now that they had hired another bartender, the ginger was able to have a drink and a dance with her girlfriend once she'd finished her duties behind the bar. Perry was set to join them later on.

The Lustig had opened about a year ago and had since then become insanely popular among the students on and around Silas University campus. It was known for its Blackouts (where they shut off all of the lights so you could 'mingle' and dance with a complete stranger in the dark. If you asked Laura, really, on its own, it was just a huge inconvenience and all it succeeded in doing was increasing the amount of collisions you had with other people) and for its foam parties that happened once in a while. All in all, it wasn't really Laura's style, but she was already here so she might as well make the most of it.

LaFontaine had a grip on her right hand, pulling her through so she didn't get lost in the mass of bodies, most of them being the ridiculously huge Zeta Omega Mu guys. Danny was right behind, practically shoving the guys out of the way, more than half of them being smaller than her.

Laura wasn't really surprised when LaFontaine dragged her straight to the bar. It was in the corner, stretching around two walls in an L shape. They were perched at the corner, so they had a good view down both sides of the bar. Betty was manning one end, the new bartender on the other. She was facing away from them, neither her nor Betty had realised that they were there.

Laura took the time to quickly scan over the back of the new girl. Dark hair in soft waves, back tank top, leather pants and a red plaid shirt tied around her waist. (To Laura, her whole get-up was screaming _lesbian_.) She only had a few seconds before Betty approached them, winking at Danny. It was then that the new bartender chose to walk past behind the blonde, tapping her on the back before sticking her finger in her mouth and gagging, clearly making fun of the relationship between the medical major and the green-high-waisted-jeaned giant.

All Laura caught sight of within those few seconds was a pale face and a jawline to _die for. _

Danny had ordered drinks for all three of them and took them over to a table on the far side, not too far away from the bar. The perks of being friends with the bartender? Free drinks. Still, even after Laura had walked away from the bar, the dark-haired girl still lingered in her mind for a bit.

* * *

She was on her third cocktail, not drunk but considerably buzzed. It gave her a little more confidence and she leaned forward, elbows on the table and staring right at Danny. "So, um, the new bartender. What's the deal?"

Danny looked up from her phone, half way through texting Perry. "Her name's Carmilla. I've only spoke to her once or twice but from what I can see she isn't all that bad." She shrugged, sending the text and slipping her phone back into her pocket, smiling up at LaF once they returned from the bar. "Perry won't be long."

LaF nodded, "Well, I'm gonna wait in the corridor then." On the outside they were calm but Laura knew they were excited. It'd be the first time that they'd see their girlfriend in about a week, due to some family events on Perry's side.

They both watched the ginger walk off and once they were out of sight, Danny stood up and announced that she was going for another drink.

Laura jumped at the chance, "I'll join you." She nodded quickly a couple of times, more to confirm to herself that _wow, was she actually doing this? _They walked to the bar together, looking like a ridiculous pair because of the height difference, however once they reached the bar, Danny split off to the other end towards Betty.

And then there was one.

Okay, maybe she _wasn't_ buzzed enough to do this – to talk to a girl that looked absolutely ridiculously hot in leather pants. _Who even pulls off leather that well anymore? _The realisation came too late though, because Carmilla had already spotted her and was walking in her direction. Laura watched her tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, her fingers lingering for a few seconds like they were adjusting something. _Since when did women this attractive exist? Had she missed something?_

"What can I get you, sweetheart?"

Laura jumped a little, her mind was pondering Carmilla's existence so much that she hadn't realised the other girls face was next to hers. "Oh—um, yeah, sure."

Carmilla's head was tilted slightly and she let out a small huff of laughter. "Care to tell me what you want exactly?"

Laura didn't even need another drink, she had half of a cocktail left anyway, but she'd been caught so she was kind of compelled to order another. "Whatever you recommend."

The bartender's lips pulled up in a smirk and she leaned forward slightly, close enough that Laura could feel her breath against her ear. "I'd recommend the Carmilla but I'm not too sure how much you can handle." She figured that Danny would've told her who she was.

Laura's jaw dropped and she stared as the other girl pulled away, watching her laugh and wink before her hand went up to her ear again.

Carmilla ended up making her a Bloody Mary, and unfortunately for Laura that was the first and last time she would speak to her that night.


	2. Chapter 2

So what if when Danny announced that she was going to the club early to help Betty clean up Laura immediately said she'd go with her. So what? It didn't mean anything, like, at all.

_She was actually just really desperate to hear that voice and gaze at that jawline again because **damn**._

"So why are you so interested in coming with me all of a sudden? Usually you'd be like 'Oh…no, sorry, I can't. There's this episode of Doctor Who on that I really need to watch for the 77th time.'" Danny went on, doing her best impression of Laura - maybe adding a little bit more of an effect by crouching down slightly whilst she walked.

Laura scoffed but she answered anyway, "Just felt like being helpful." Danny raised an eyebrow at that.

"Oh, are you sure? Because I'm pretty sure you were gazing at Carmilla like a love sick puppy for most of last night."

"I- I don't gaze!" Laura stuttered, her eyes going wide, "She just... She said something that left me wondering and I want to ask her about it before she starts working, that's all."

"Mm, sure."

Laura didn't reply, and the topic was dropped for the rest of the walk.

* * *

She wasn't really surprised to see Betty and Carmilla sat at a table together drinking rather than actually cleaning up like they were supposed to be doing. She was surprised when Carmilla noticed her and Danny before Betty though, acknowledging their presence by raising and eyebrow and tipping her glass towards both of them.

"Sweetheart, jolly ginger giant." Carmilla greeted, smirking a little.

Laura smiled and hung back while Danny walked towards her girlfriend. She watched the dark-haired girl roll her eyes and stand up, downing the rest of her drink before strolling over to the bar. Her hair was the same as yesterday but instead of the black tank there was a brown button-up in it's place, sleeves rolled up to the elbows. A pair of black jeans replaced the leather pants.

What came over her she'd never know, but Laura found herself walking to the bar. She cleared her throat, purely out of nervousness instead of trying to get Carmilla's attention.

"Miss me, cupcake?" Carmilla asked, turning around with a glass and a towel in hand and raising an eyebrow.

_Confidence, Laura. Confidence._ "Well, I just have to ask you about what you said last night."

Carmilla leaned back against the counter against the wall, shrugging one shoulder, a smirk on her face. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Laura leaned forward against the bar, tilting her head and nodding once. "I must be mistaken then." She turned to walk back to the table, but not before throwing a glance back over her shoulder, her voice barely loud enough for Carmilla to hear. "People have been surprised at just how much I can handle."

She didn't stop to see the look on Carmilla's face.

* * *

They'd been there for about an hour now and people had started to flow in, most of them heading straight to the bar which meant that Betty had to leave the presence of her girlfriend, much to Danny's dismay.

LaFontaine and Perry had arrived a little while ago and Laura thought that after being friends with them for so many years she'd be used to all of the PDA. Apparently not.

LaF had interrogated her about the new bartender within minutes of arriving, quickly coming to the conclusion that Laura did, in fact, have a huge lesbian crush on the girl, something that Laura denied profusely.

Okay so it was true but that was nobody's business but her own. Thankfully, LaF dropped the subject pretty easily.

The ginger couple succeeded in pulling Laura onto the dancefloor after a small period of persuasion techniques. LaF claiming that she needed to 'let loose' and 'stop stressing over midterms and gay crushes'. It was awkward for the most part because really, if we're being honest, there's no way to dance effectively when there's just three of you, considering Danny had ditched them to go hibernate near the bar. So Laura pulled herself away and she too soon found herself migrating towards the bar.

Which was where she was now, getting hit on by some frat guy that looked like his mom had dressed him for the school disco. He'd offered to buy her a drink multiple times, all of which she refused. Papa Hollis didn't send his little girl to college without warning her about accepting drinks from strangers. After refusing once again, the Zeta's face contorted into a somewhat angry expression and he opened his mouth to say something, but not before being interrupted.

"She doesn't owe you anything, Will. Back off."

Laura recognized that voice straight away — Carmilla. It was the voice that had been running through her mind for the past 24 hours but no one needed to know that.

The guy, who she assumed was called Will, turned towards the bartender. "What is your problem?!" He snapped.

Carmilla barely even spared him a glance, continuing to mix drinks. "My problem? My problem is you." She'd encountered this guy several times within the short period that she'd worked there, most, if not all, of those encounters resulting in him having to be kicked out. He'd pulled this shit plenty of times and she'd be damned if he got away with doing it to another girl. (A girl who she realized that she actually didn't know the name of yet.)

Will tilted his head, pretending to be interested but the sour look remained on his face.

"Do you have any idea how many times you've actually roofied yourself because I've switched your drinks? I mean, to be honest I'm not surprised if that's the only way you can get a girl because you look like you've been dressed by your mother, but seriously, don't try that shit again. Not when I'm behind the bar." Carmilla paused her actions, looking up at him with a completely unaffected look taking up residence on her face.

Laura watched in amazement. Carmilla handled it as though it was nothing, and there was a fire in her eyes that she hadn't noticed during their previous meetings.

"Are you going to leave of your own accord or am I gonna have to get Kirsch to drag you out? As long as you get out, I really don't care how it's done."

The Zeta downed the rest of his drink and stormed out, Carmilla smirking at his frustration.

Laura blinked and shook her head. "I—uh, wow. Thank you."

The dark-haired girl shrugged it off and winked. "I can't let a guy like that take advantage of a girl like you, can I?"

She walked off an Laura stood there for a minute, trying to get her thoughts in order before she walked back to her friends.

* * *

Against her better judgement, Laura allowed LaF and Perry to drag her back for a dance, both of them midly intoxicated by now. She was left dancing on her own whilst the other two danced together, which immediately became awkward when some sort of Beyonce remix started through the speakers and everyone started grinding against each other.

_Okay, gross. It is definitely time for me to go sit back down. _That was where she was headed before a hand gripped her waist and she panicked slightly. _Oh god, it's another Zeta. I'm gonna have to fight him off, aren't I? Oh god. Come on Laura, you can do this._

However, hands settled on her hips and a body pressed flush against her back before she could do anything. The first thing she noticed was that it definitely wasn't a male body. A part of her wanted to react like 'Oh yay someone actually caught on and sensed my gay vibes' but another part was still finding this super creepy.

That was, until, the voice that she'd found herself obsessing over whispered in her ear. "Leaving so soon?"

Laura relaxed somewhat and she stopped trying to pull away, letting Carmilla pull her hips back. Her breath hitched slightly as the hands guided her hips in time with the music. She had absolutely no idea how to do this.

A hand rested on her stomach, pulling her whole body flush against Camilla's front, the other stayed on her hip, moving up to her waist every so often. She could feel the other girls breath on the back of her neck and decided it was best if she just let go. So she did. Laura closed her eyes and arched her back, one of her own hands moving to tangle in her hair as she gyrated her hips back into Carmilla's.

Now, when she said she had no idea how to do this she meant that she'd never done it herself, not that she'd never even seen it done. That was basically all she was going off right now.

For the next few minutes Laura lost herself in the music, in the bass pounding through the room, in the feel of the bartender's body against her own.

Unfortunately for her, it was over quicker than she would've liked.

Laura turned before Carmilla could pull away, throwing her arms over the taller girls shoulders and raising herself up on her toes slightly so her mouth was close to her ear. She pressed a kiss to Camilla's cheek before whispering, "It's Laura."

Carmilla pulled back with a grin and a wink before returning back to her duties.

* * *

Once Laura got home she emptied out her pockets, pulling out a napkin that she honestly didn't remember shoving into her back pocket.

On one side, a number. On the other…

_Call me_

_Carmilla x_


End file.
